The invention relates to systems for animal training and tracking, and more particularly to an improvement and accessory for animal training systems to allow for visual tracking of an animal in low ambient light situations.
While a number of devices are known for remotely stimulating dogs and other animals for training purposes, it is difficult to track such animals if they are off-leash and moving far afield. In fact, dogs may be lost during training exercises or competitions should they wander too far from the owner or trainer. In this situation, not only may a prize animal be lost, but also so would the expensive training collar being worn by the animal. These problems are particularly acute in low lighting conditions.
Animal lighting apparatuses are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,201, issued to Chao et al. on Nov. 6, 1979, discloses an illuminated collar including small electric lamps powered by a dry cell battery and disposed along an elongated leather strap. A manually operated switch carried on the collar for operation of the lights. U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,443, issued to Allen P. Simmons on Jan. 27, 1976, discloses an illuminated collar, which includes a plurality of miniature filament lamps connected in parallel. A battery is disposed along the length of the collar which, when secured in its container, completes an electrical circuit to provide power to the lights. U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,927, issued to James A. Gokey on Jun. 4, 1996, discloses a collar for placement on an animal including a light emitting diode, a motion sensitive switch designed to respond to the motion of the animal, an on/off switch to selectively turn the battery power to the circuit, a battery and a timing circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 7,140,327, issued to Sondra Morehead on Nov. 28, 2006, discloses a collar with an illumination source in communication with a light emission inset through light transferring fibers. The illumination source may be manipulated with a control mechanism in communication with the illumination source through a radio frequency transceiver, or possibly an infrared link or other wireless technology. A person may activate the illumination source remotely without the necessity of capturing the animal prior to activating the illumination source.
While the above patents generally disclose an illuminated pet collar or harness, the references require the lighting on the collar to be switched on or off manually. The constant on position of the light source rapidly depletes the energy source for the lighting. Also, the above references do not disclose a light attachment that may be added to an existing wireless training system.
Thus, there is an unmet need for an improved remote training device that reliably provides a remote training device that (1) provides maximum selectability of the intensity of stimulus applied to the animal, (2) achieves very reliable, repeatable electrical contact of the electrodes with the animal's skin over the entire desired range of selectable stimulus intensity settings, and (3) allows for selective illumination of the animal in low lighting conditions to allow greater visibility to the owner.
The present invention provides improvements over the above prior art and other existing animal illumination systems.